23
We joined Alastir and curled up on the sofas surrounding the fireplace. I brought my knees up to my chest, resting my chin on them.
“Well? Would one of you care to explain?” Alastir watched us quietly from his chair, taking a sip of his midnight coffee.
“We can’t just pay you a visit, old man?” Puck grinned, throwing his arm over the back of the sofa behind Tess.
Alastir’s mouth thinned as his gaze fell on Nikolai.
“Explain. I know more than you think, so don’t try to hide anything from me.”
“Did you see us coming?” Nik asked, rubbing his hands together in front of the flames.
Alastir held his gaze before subtly nodding once. How was that possible? How could he have seen us coming?
“I am a seer, girl,” Alastir replied as if reading my thoughts, his eyes darting towards me. “And no, I cannot read your thoughts.”
“I have a name,” I bit out.
“Ah, yes. Diana. The youngest Stormshade of the Kotova bloodline.” Alastir gave me a wry smile before turning back to Nik.
“We didn’t have any other choice. Donika is coming after us, and she might know of our location. She has a powerful dream walker at her side, Corian. He pulled Diana into a dream against her will and tried to hold her there. They claimed to know our location. They want to capture her again, throw her in the Stormvault. She has created these demons with her darkness that siphon magic. I don’t know if she plans to siphon Diana’s magic and turn her mortal, or steal it for herself, but either way…I won’t let Donika get her hands on her.”
Nik swallowed hard, running a hand through his mess of blond hair. He leaned back against the couch, exhausted. It had been a long day for all of us.
“And you knew this is the one place she wouldn’t be able to find her,” Alastir replied simply.
“Yes,” Nik admitted. “We will leave tomorrow, but we didn’t want to lead her back to the resistance.”
“I understand. You came to the right place.” Alastir nodded.
“You knew who she was this whole time?” Nik asked.
“Yes. I have known who she is since the moment she was born. Osiris was a dear friend of mine. I have watched over her these past years, ensuring her safety, for his sake. I sensed her outside the charm shop that day you came in, and I saw you coming here, tonight.”
“What else have you seen?” Nik asked.
“Nothing that will help you.” Alastir held Nik’s gaze a moment longer before turning towards me, his gaze haunting. “Have you lost control of your magic yet?”
I reared back as if slapped.
Had he seen that, too?
“You are not the only Stormshade to be granted too much power. Too much to wield. Too much to control.”
“I’m not?” I asked, my voice strangled.
If there were others that had been in this same predicament, did that mean there was an answer to this? A way for me to learn to control this magic?
Alastir shook his head. “You certainly are not the first. The Kotova bloodline has always been particularly plagued with this affliction. This level of power. It isn’t a blessing, as I’m sure you’ve seen. More of a curse.”
I swallowed hard, my mind reeling. “What do I do?”
“You already have part of the answers you seek,” he replied cryptically.
“What does that mean?” My chest rose and fell with rapid breaths, my mind spinning with the possibilities.
“It means…your grimoire has already shown you the answer.”
“The key?” I asked, my gaze darting towards Tess.
She is the only one I had told about that dream, the one with the key spell. The one where the page must have been ripped out of the grimoire…because no matter how long I searched and searched I could not find that spell in the book of shadows.
“What key?” Nik asked.
My gaze fell on him. “I had a vision. My grimoire showed me…as if I was watching from someone else’s point of view. Someone else’s hands before me. The vision was short, and I had absolutely no idea what it meant.”
“The key is a spell from the Kotova book of shadows. It is the only way a Stormshade can control her powers. Without that spell, without the key, there is no other way,” Alastir replied.
No other way?
What about those Stormshades who never had the good fortune of knowing the spell existed? What happened to them?
“But I searched the grimoire over and over again, that spell wasn’t in there,” I insisted.
Alastir nodded, taking another sip of his coffee. “It has been ripped out. You will have to travel to The Shadow to find the answers you seek.”
“The Shadow?” Nik’s reply echoed my own thoughts.
“Why would the spell be in The Shadow? Is that where the person is who ripped it out? Why would they do that?” I asked, the questions spilling out of my mouth.
Alastir held my gaze with a knowing expression in his eyes. “Not everyone wants a powerful Stormshade to have the ability to control their magic. Not every Stormshade requires the key, and those that do are exceptionally powerful.”
“How did you know I would need it?”
A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth as he replied, “I saw it.”
“If you saw it, why didn’t you tell us?” Nik asked, his voice ragged as he ran a hand down his face, exhaustion threatening to take over.
“Because that would have interrupted the sequence of events. If I had intervened and told you earlier, we never would have been here, now, having this conversation.” Alastir inclined his head in Nik’s direction. “You know I cannot interfere in what I see. My gift is from the mother above, and she can take it away just as easily as it has been given.”
“So, who do we need to go searching for in The Shadow? We can’t exactly go waltzing in asking questions. Diana’s location must be kept secret, and The Shadow is full of questionable Shades. Have you seen that much, at least?” Nik asked, exasperated.
“The man you are searching for is named Phineas Wolfe. He is a Nightshade, as you are. He is a wolf, as you are. And he has the answers you seek.”
“What does that mean?” I asked, more than mildly irritated. I ran a hand through my auburn curls, wanting to rip them out. “Does he have the spell, or not?”
“I have given you all the information the mother will allow,” Alastir replied simply. “You can stay here for the night, and journey to The Shadow in the morning. After that, you’ll need to find new lodging. I am too old to be pulled into this war. I have seen enough war for my lifetime, and many more.”
I wanted to curse the mother above for what little information we were given. I wondered if we might be able to get Liss or Saanvi to escort us tomorrow as they had in the past. We didn’t know our way in and out of The Shadow, and it was too unpredictable of a place to get lost in. We had no idea what this Phineas looked like, or where we might find him. He might not be willing to give up the spell so easily, and we would need to be ready for a fight.
I wanted to know how he got his hands on it in the first place. The spell was part of the Kotova grimoire, and only Kotova blood could open it. How had he had the opportunity to steal it?
“We will leave first thing in the morning,” Nik agreed.
Alastir nodded to one of the rooms off the small living space, getting up slowly from his chair. “There is a spare bedroom there, the rest can sleep out here. Rest easy tonight, Donika cannot find you here. You’ll give my best to Isaac?”
Nik met Alastir’s expression with one of shock. “How do you know Isaac?”
Alastir only smiled knowingly before dumping the remainder of his coffee in the sink and disappearing into the other bedroom.
Tess and I had taken the spare room, curling up under the coverlet together and falling asleep quickly. We could hear Nik and Puck whispering out in the living space into the early hours of the morning before sleep eventually took them, too.
Puck woke with the sun and gently shook us awake, careful not to wake Alastir in the adjoining room. I wasn’t sure how much help he had been with how vague his answers were, but I was thankful we at least had one answer: The spell we needed to control my magic was the key, and it was in The Shadow.
I rubbed sleep from my eyes as I bundled myself into my black cloak, tying it at the neck and draping it across my shoulders. The others did the same, hoping to stay somewhat inconspicuous as we traveled through The Shadow.
Nik didn’t want to travel back to the safe house to get Saanvi or Liss to escort us, and I understood why. Donika might not know our exact location anymore, but she knew we were in Prins, and she knew we were in this part of the city. It was too much of a risk to lead her straight back to the members of our cause. We would need to find our way in and out of The Shadow on our own.
We took to the streets with our hoods up and fell into step with the foot traffic down the hill, towards the main part of the city. Alastir’s wasn’t too far from The Shadow, and it wasn’t long before we were facing the staircase that would take us down into the darkness.
The sky overhead was gloomy, as if a rainstorm threatened to cascade down on us at any moment. The clouds swirled together angrily, and I hoped we wouldn’t get caught in a driving rain—in a place we weren’t familiar with.
We paused before the steep stone staircase, steeling ourselves before we ventured down. Tess gave me a reassuring smile and followed behind me as I made my ascent. Puck had proposed we start at a pub, it was as good a place as any to try to find someone. We had passed a few pubs on our travels through The Shadow before, so at least we had a starting point.
We traveled through the long, stone tunnel to the streets located beyond. The road was inlaid with cobblestone as it was in the rest of Prins, but here, it hadn’t seen the sunlight in decades. The stones were a muddied, filthy brown, and you couldn’t avoid sloshing your boots in a dirty puddle as we made our way around the first corner.
There were no people busily walking the streets here. No stores open, no shop owners hawking their wares to passerby.
It was utterly quiet.
A crow circled overhead, calling out, and I peered through the sheets draped between buildings to see. I had a sneaking suspicion it was Kenna, but couldn’t be sure. A woman with a cane and a suspicious looking green bottle of liquid tried to stop us, but we ignored her and pressed on.
We popped into the first pub we saw, and despite having our hoods drawn up, all eyes immediately turned our direction. We stuck out here, and that would only make finding Phineas even more difficult.
Nik and Puck sidled up to the bar, and I had a feeling whatever they served here wasn’t Dragon’s Ale. The bartender had a cap pulled low over his eyes, and he watched us as he polished an amber bottle with a dirty rag.
“Aye, you lot aren’t from around here, are ye?” he asked, placing the bottle back on the bar top and slinging the rag over his shoulder. “What can I get ye? Two hundred pounds could buy you a good time…” he trailed off as Puck shot him a glare.
“We aren’t patrons of your…establishment.” Nik cleared his throat. I glanced around, and for the first time I realized exactly what kind of establishment this was. It surely wasn’t Dragon’s Ale they sold here. “We are searching for someone.”
“Aye, everyone is searching for someone, ain’t they?” The bartender peered at Nik under hooded eyes. “Can’t help ye.”
“You don’t know who we are looking for,” Nik protested as the bartender turned his back towards us.
“Nobody in The Shadow is lookin’ for anybody good, of that I’m certain. Run along,” the bartender replied, shooing us away from the bar top to make room for other, paying, patrons.
“Well, that was a bust,” Tess sighed as we moved towards the door.
“We’ll have to try another place,” Puck agreed.
As we passed through the door Nik stopped and engaged with a man standing there, an ale in one hand and the other firmly planted inside his jacket. “Do you know a Phineas Wolfe?”
“Boy, are you stupid?” The man screwed his face up at Nik. “Bugger off.”
“It was worth a try.” Nik shrugged.
“Now the question is, did he think you were stupid because you asked about Phineas, or for more obvious reasons,” Puck asked with a laugh as we made our way back out onto the street.
“Not helpful, Puck.” Nik sighed, turning his face skyward.
“Where do we try next? Where would a sinister spell-stealer be hiding out?” I asked, peering up and down the deserted street.
“What about that pub you thought you had seen Tyr going into?” Tess asked. “Surely if they let a fifteen-year-old in, it can’t be as seedy as this one. Maybe we would have better luck there.”
She turned and grimaced at the front door of the pub we stood outside of, a shiver running down her spine.
“True,” Puck agreed. “And if Tyr was welcome there…those folks might be running in circles that have them associated with the Kotova bloodline.”
Tyr wouldn’t have stolen the spell…would he? Tyr was a Kotova, but he wasn’t a Stormshade. He would have no need of the spell for himself.
We carefully crossed The Shadow, following the way Liss had led us last time we had been here. We were careful to keep our heads down and eyes up, alert to any possible threats. The Shadow appeared more deserted than usual today, which was certainly saying something.
Quite a few of the seedier shops had closed since our last pass through, their windows and doors boarded up. The second pub was near the base of the staircase that led back up out of The Shadow on the other side, and it was nestled at the end of a long stone corridor.
We rounded the corner and were surprised to find this pub much livelier than the last. There were girls dancing on the bar top, ale sloshing from their mugs, and men pounding their fists against the bar as they cheered. The music was coming from a live folk band nestled into the back corner of the pub, where there appeared to be some type of poker game taking place.
There were both young and old patrons, and the clientele didn’t appear nearly as questionable as the last place. Nik and Puck pushed their way through the crowd to the bar where they perched on a couple of stools. Tess and I followed, keeping an eye out for any of Fletcher’s men who might frequent a place such as this.
“Hey!” Puck called out, raising a hand to get the attention of the bartender.
A younger man with a mustache approached, leaning across the bar. “What can I do you for?”
“We are looking for someone. Do you know a Phineas Wolfe?” Puck asked.
The bartender raised his brow and glanced down the bar to see if anyone was close enough to hear.
“You’re not likely to find Mr. Wolfe in a place like this. Your best bet is Madam Dougherty’s over on West. Do me a favor? Don’t tell him I sent you.”
Puck nodded, and the bartender disappeared behind the bar to tend to the next patron. We had passed West street on our way here, we would only need to backtrack a bit. Was Madam Dougherty’s a brothel? What kind of business was this Mr. Wolfe into, anyway?
We shuffled back out of the bar, avoiding the sloshing drinks of the drunk patrons as we made our way back onto the street. I had to admit, that bar looked like a good time, and I was a little sad to be leaving so soon. I knew we needed to focus on retrieving the key spell, but I had a craving for a large mug of ale right about now.
West street was a few blocks away and only took us a few minutes to walk to. I was surprised we hadn’t gotten lost yet, but didn’t want to mention that out loud and jinx it.
We found a stone building stained with moss that had a small, wooden sign hanging out front declaring this to be Madam Dougherty’s. There was no indication of what type of establishment it was, and there were no windows to peer into.
Nik pulled on the heavy wooden door, and we entered into darkness. The door led to a staircase which we descended, finding an attendant at a wooden stand asleep across his books at the bottom.
Nik cleared his throat, but the attendant didn’t budge. Puck gave him a slight nudge, and he woke with a start, whipping his head up. He took our group in with a scrutinizing gaze before turning to Nik, deciding he must be the leader.
He cleared his throat. “Appointment?”
“We don’t have an appointment,” Nik started, shifting uncomfortably. Maybe we had walked into a brothel after all. “We are looking for someone. Phineas Wolfe.”
The attendant nodded before disappearing behind the black curtain behind him. A moment later he returned.
“Follow me.”
Had we found him already? Could it be that easy?
The simple part would likely be finding him…getting him to give up the spell on the other hand was something else entirely.
We followed the man behind the curtain to a small room with a folded table at the center. A woman sat atop a tall chair, a scrying glass before her, an empty seat across from her. So, not a brothel after all. I breathed a sigh of relief.
It appeared Madam Dougherty was a fortune teller of some sort, and I doubted any fortune she might tell would be a positive one based off on her moody expression.
“Madam, we are looking for Phineas Wolfe. Do you know where we might find him?” Nik asked, leaning over the chair across from her to bring himself down to her level.
She glanced up at him and her mouth thinned. “You just missed him.”
Tess and I visibly deflated. How many places were we going to have to search in order to find this man?
Nik sighed, clearly frustrated. “Do you know where we might find him?”
The woman shook her head. “I don’t keep tabs on Phineas Wolfe, and if you had any brains in that beautiful blond head of yours…you wouldn’t either. But I can offer you a bit of information…something that could change the path before you, should you be open to it.”
“Hard pass,” Nik replied, standing straight. “I’ve had enough ‘seeing’ for one day, but thank you for the offer.”
We shuffled out onto the street, unsure where to go next. It had to be about midday based on what little of the sun we could see from down here. That meant we had already spent a few hours searching for Phineas with no success.
Each person sent us to the next location without any other information, like a treasure hunt. Except…the treasure was a spell I desperately needed and was anxious to get my hands on.
“Where do we go now?” Tess asked, hugging her arms around herself.
A cold chill ran through the air, but the angry storm clouds above hadn’t broken yet. I was thankful the rain had held off thus far. I felt the same chill run down my own spine and hugged my cloak tighter around me.
“We could always try another pub?” Puck offered.
“Did you see any other pubs? I’m hesitant to stray from the main streets without a guide,” Nik replied, his expression tight.
Behind Nik and Puck, I saw a flash of black at the mouth of the next alley. It was gone as quickly as I had seen it. Just like with Tyr.
“Did you see that?” I asked, pointing.
“I didn’t see anything,” Tess replied, turning towards the alley.
“That!” I pointed as the black figure passed the opening of the alley again, so quickly you could blink and miss it.
“Stay here,” Nik instructed, his hand on the sword at his hip.
My own hand subconsciously moved to my thigh sheath to find Stormslayer safely secured there with my throwing knives. Nik and Puck moved towards the alley soundlessly, and Tess and I quietly followed behind.
“Did I not say to stay there?” Nik hissed as he turned to glare at us, his gaze hard.
“I’ll do as I please,” I replied frostily.
Nik snickered under his breath, inching forwards. “I would expect nothing less, firecracker.”
A dark figure shot out, knocking Puck to the ground. His Katana went skittering across the cobblestones and out of reach, the black figure pinning him to the filthy street. Nik took one look at the wolf snapping its jaws in Puck’s face and turned form himself.
One moment he was standing before us in his cloak, his sword in hand. The next he was a wolf, his great black haunches poised to lunge, his mouth peeled back in a snarl. With his hackles raised he lunged for the throat of the wolf that had pinned Puck to the ground.
He was able to throw the wolf off using surprise to his advantage, but this other wolf was bigger than Nik was. It had warm brown eyes, and its coat was streaked with grey and white fur. I didn’t recognize it, and was sure I had never encountered this wolf before.
“Stay back!” Puck called to us as he scrambled for his Katana, ready to back Nik up if he needed it.
My hand moved to Stormslayer and remained steady on the hilt, ready to wield it if needed.
Nik dodged the bigger wolf, using his smaller stature and speed to his advantage. He was able to catch the other wolf by the back leg, using his sharp teeth and strong jaw to drag it backwards.
The grey and white wolf let out a yelp, turning over to show Nik its stomach. Nik didn’t move, his lips curled back over his muzzle in a snarl as his eyes held those of the grey and white wolf.
Puck pointed his sword at the chest of the enemy wolf as it lay sprawled against the cobblestones, his expression stern. “Who are you?”
The other wolf glanced back towards us, then his eyes fell on Puck once more. In the blink of an eye the wolf turned into a man, one I had never seen before.
He had salt and pepper hair and a strong jaw. He was handsome for an older man, and he raised his hands in surrender, palms up. His smile was that of a fox caught in a trap, and something about him unsettled me to my very core.
“I’ll ask again…who are you?” Puck didn’t move, the Katana still pointed at the man’s heart.
Nik remained in his wolf form, his chest rising and falling rapidly from exertion.
“The name’s Phineas Wolfe,” the man replied with a mischievous smirk, “I heard you’re looking for me?”